I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue

[sassybird]

Mermaid AU Meme



Rules:
- Put down your character name and series in the subject header. Put down any preferences (romantic or if you're a mermaid/human) in the comment.
- Reply to other people! RNG a choice from the prompts below, or just come up with whatever on your own.
- This is not a strictly romance meme. Feel free to have whatever shenanigans you like.


Merfolk and Merfolk

1.
Little Mermaid it
♢ One of you is a merperson with something you want. (Power? Help figuring out what this weird human doodad is? Becoming human?) The other is a powerful sea mage of some sort... And for the first of you, you better hope they're the good sort as you venture forth to their lair...

2.
Exploration
♢ C'mon. What's the worst that could happen when checking out this enormous sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean? You're merpeople! What's the worst that could happen? (Besides sharks. Or giant squid. Or maybe worse.)

3.
New tides
♢ Hey... That person isn't from around these parts, are they...? Maybe one of you is from deep seas, or a swamp-mer way out of your territory, or just from simply a different ocean. Hopefully neither of you are particularly territorial...

4.
Hey there, Ariel
♢ So. Looks like one of you actually took up on some sea witch's deal and is living in some human settlement. The other? Is trying to help you deal with that. Whether it means puzzling out human culture and items with you, pleading with you to come back home, or even offering you a dagger just in case you need to stab your crush (what? it's a legitimate strategy), you two need to cope.

5.
Wildcard.


Merfolk and Humans

1.
For Science!
♢ You're a scientist, here to study a fascinating new creature. Although the 'creature' in question might take offense to you saying that... So are you searching them out for the first time in the open ocean? Keeping them in some sort of containment? It's up to you.

2.
Stranded
♢ There was a shipwreck, and you're the sole survivor... Although you very nearly weren't. Whether you've just woken up or have been trying to puzzle things out on this deserted island, well... It seems you're not alone, although they're not exactly on the island with you.

3.
Siren Song
♢ Merpeople aren't always good signs... Sometimes they lure sailors out onto rocks, or extinguish their stamina and drown them in the ocean's tumultuous waters. Is this another encounter that will end in tragedy?

4.
Chance Encounter
♢ You're nothing extraordinary, just a regular person in a beach town, and one way or another... You find something that's very much not regular. Maybe you just walked into the cove at the right time, or found something- someone- trapped or injured that needed your help. So now what?

5.
Wildcard

Comments

[showyouthesight]

"Where do you usually find yours? I haven't had tuna in forever since they don't spawn near our waters." Mackerel are nowhere near large enough to sate his appetite. Maybe if he had a good number of them. But hunting is equally promising.

[nanaharu]

"I dunno... the hunters usually find them," he says, biting off the head of the mackerel.

Haruka looks a bit thoughtful. He's generally well-provided for here, not having to deal with a lot of the more difficult parts himself. Should he really be giving that up for some time with a shark? It's not logical at all, and yet he can't shake the idea.

[showyouthesight]

"You don't do your own hunting?" Rin sounds absolutely baffled.

Even the youngest of mersharks accompanied the shiver for their hunts. Most mersharks learned shortly after they were born, the first time they experienced hunger pangs. It was instinctual to seek out food. He can't imagine sitting around and waiting for someone else to bring back his meal every day. Sure, it had been nice to have Haruka do the work of fetching it here. But not being able to hunt would just feel weird.

"You know how though, right?" He has to be sure.

[nanaharu]

Haruka looks at Rin for a moment before shaking his head. "The hunters catch enough food for everyone else."

He's never really had any reason to go out hunting himself. Hunting is more like a specific job in this kingdom, and even without his role, he likely wouldn't have to hunt anyway.

[showyouthesight]

"How do you even decide who gets that job?" Who wouldn't want it? Aside from Haruka obviously.

Speaking of Haruka... "And the how the hell do you not know how to hunt? That's like Mer Basics 101. Anyone can do it."

[nanaharu]

"It's normally by family. One family is known for singing, another for building..."

Haruka shrugs a little.

"I never had to learn that," he says simply. Sharks definitely are something else when it comes to this.

[showyouthesight]

Rin studies Haruka critically as he goes on, growing increasingly irritated. "So princes don't need to learn, huh? That's bullshit." He springs from the bed and swims over to grab Haruka's wrist, grinning with all his teeth. "Well, it can't hurt to try."

[nanaharu]

Haruka blinks as his wrist is caught, not pulling away but looking up curiously at Rin.

"Try what?"

[showyouthesight]

"Haven't you been listening? Hunting, obviously! We can head out right now!"

[nanaharu]

"Right now?" Haruka repeats in surprise. "But I don't know-- I don't have a spear or a weapon that the hunters use."

Not to mention that he's not as strong as the shark with him. No part of him is made for hunting.

[showyouthesight]

Rin looks boggled again. "Spear or weapon? You have teeth, don't you?" What sort of fish hunted with tools? That took all the skill out of it.

[nanaharu]

Haruka bares his teeth to Rin. They're completely flat, not the kind to latch onto prey at all.

"I won't be able to catch anything like this..."

[showyouthesight]

Rin frowns. Those teeth are extremely unimpressive.

"What about your claws? They should be able to catch something."

[nanaharu]

Haruka holds out his nails, colored like his shiny blue scales, but dull and short.

"Don't think so..."

[showyouthesight]

Rin lifts up the wrist he's holding to check those nails. They do look really stubby. What sort of mers are Haruka's kind? They can swim like nobody's business, but when it comes to everything else that makes a mer a mer, they sure seem to be lacking.

"Tch, maybe you can concuss them with your tail." He knows that has a good amount of force behind it.

[nanaharu]

Haruka turns to look at his own tail. While it is strong from a lot of the swimming practice he does, he swishes his hips and tail slightly. He doesn't know if he can turn around fast enough to catch some mackerel.

"Are you sure that'll work?"

[showyouthesight]

"You never know until you try. Here, we can practice. Do you have anything around here that we could knock around?" Maybe there's some loose shells or some especially fragile coral that they could try smacking.

[nanaharu]

"I don't want to hit anything in my room," Haruka says, before peering out the seaweed-lined door. Will they have any space to get out of here unseen? Well, maybe it won't be so hard to speed away out of here. He isn't sure about this hunting thing... but if Rin is going to get out of here any time soon, they should leave before others start to come by.

"I know another place we can go."

[showyouthesight]

Rin looks more intrigued and tries to peer around the door himself. He's not really one for spending a lot of time inside so he's eager to get out again. "What did you have in mind?"

[nanaharu]

"It's a place I go, sometimes."

A place he usually goes to be alone. It's not as comfortable as his own room, which is why he'd brought Rin there, but no one else comes around. Despite Rin being larger than him, Haruka still tries his best to shield him from view as they speed away.

It's a rocky area with not much fish around, which is why it goes mostly ignored. In front of it is simply empty blue ocean for miles. But there are enough nooks and crannies to hide away in, with small, gravelly rocks and bits of shells strewn around.

[showyouthesight]

Rin is too amused by Haruka's strange protectiveness to bother jockeying for position. He follows Haruka with a few lengthy whips of his tail, peering around them when he notices the lack of fish or any other animals for that matter. What is this place? He swoops down to grab some larger shells.

"What do you usually come here for?" It seems oddly quiet and isolated, the exact opposite of a place Rin prefers.

[nanaharu]

Haruka shrugs.

"Time alone, I guess."

It does sometimes get too lonely, and he has to turn back. But as the prince of the merpeople, he looked for a place that no one else knew.

Scattered around the place are some sculptures of strange fish. He swims down onto a small nook and lays there for a moment, looking up at the distant surface of the ocean. Hardly any plants or debris float in the way-- it's completely clear. The feeling isn't the same with someone else here... yet strangely, not worse.

[showyouthesight]

"You're really into that solitude thing, aren't you? I get it. It's nice to have some time to yourself. Me, I don't think I could stand it for that long. I need to be around people."

Rin swims around, examining the sculptures and wondering where they came from. Did Haruka make them? Or did he find them? He said he wasn't much of an explorer.

"So what did you want to practice with around here? It doesn't have to be that heavy. We just need something that will let you work on your form."

[nanaharu]

"I'm around a lot of people, most of the time." Said with a tone that sounds like that that isn't all that pleasant.

He picks up a sculpture that appears lopsided, not through any intentional design. But it's a creature he'd seen around the surface before... something with wings. "This?"

[showyouthesight]

"Said like someone who'd rather be anywhere else."

He swims over to take the sculpture. He too has seen the oddly large creature soaring through the highest part of the surface world. Always by itself, strangely enough. Maybe that's why Haruka had been drawn to it.

"Sure, that should work. I'll just toss it toward you and you give it a whack, all right?"